Officials from Pakistan's anti-graft body, who were present at the airport, took them into custody as they came out of the plane. The two were convicted on July 6 in the Evenfield properties case linked to the Sharif family's ownership of four luxury flats in London.

Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif along with his daughter Maryam were arrested on Friday tonight on their return to the country following they were convicted in a corruption case, less than two weeks before the country goes to polls.

The plane carrying Sharif and Maryam landed at Lahore's Allama Iqbal Airport at 9:15 IST, nearly three hours late from the scheduled arrival. The Etihad Airways flight EY243 arrived here from Abu Dhabi. Earlier they flew to the UAE capital from London, where Sharif's ailing wife Kulsoom is battling for her life.

Officials from Pakistan's anti-graft body, who were present at the airport, took them into custody as they came out of the plane. The two were convicted on July 6 in the Evenfield properties case linked to the Sharif family's ownership of four luxury flats in London. Both Sharif, 68, and Maryam, 44, have been sentenced by an accountability court to 10 and 7 years in prison, respectively.

The National Accountability Bureau and the caretaker government had announced that they would be taken into custody upon their arrival at the airport. A helicopter is present at the airport to take them to Islamabad from there they will be sent to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after producing them before the accountability court.

In the recent past, Sharif and his daughter Maryam have made several trips back and forth from London to attend the hearings and attend to the ailing Kulsoom. The Avenfield case was among the three corruption cases filed against the former premier and his children by the NAB on the Supreme Court's orders in the Panama Papers case, which disqualified Sharif.

Apart from Sharif, Maryam and son-in-law Capt (retd) Safdar are accused in the case. Sharif's two sons -- Hasan and Hussain -- also wanted in the case, have been declared proclaimed offenders owing to their no-show.